Stone Soup Revival Community Block Party Extravaganza!

A coming together to create Resurrection Village–a tiny homes community

We are a collection of people from all walks of life–led and guided by those with direct experience of homelessness–coming together to celebrate abundance, sharing and love–and to work to realize our vision of a world in which each of us has a safe place to call our own. We share the conviction that housing is a basic right held by all–and we are acting out of that conviction.

For this inaugural event, we invite everyone who believes in our vision to converge anddemand that we be allowed to establish Resurrection Village–a self-governed tiny homes village that houseless people and their allies have been working to realize in downtown Denver–and that the City of Denver provides us land for this purpose. Our convergence will take place on the very site whereResurrection Village existed for a few jubilant hours before the houses we built ourselves were removed and ten of us were arrested on October 24th.

We are coming together to express our OUTRAGE with the status quo–in which thousands of us are sleeping in alleys and doorways and cars and crowded shelters by night–lugging around our worldly belongings by day–harassed, attacked and criminalized for simple acts of survival. We can create a better world together–beginning with the creation of Resurrection Village–a tiny homes community to be built, inhabited and managed right here in Denver by those of us who are currently houseless.

We are also coming together to correct our misconceptions and educate each other about the true causes and status of homelessness in our communities: for example, that 1/3 of homeless people are working; nearly half of homeless people are in families with children; 269 people counted as homeless in the Denver area in January 2015 were over age 60, 586 identified as being veterans, and 650 reported being homeless due to domestic violence; and that–right now–we need 30,000 more affordable housing units than are available.

At this family-friendly event, we will make soup from ingredients each of us provides, celebrate, play, dance…share art, poetry, music, dreams and visions…learn, plan, and begin working together to make our shared vision a reality. We will draw inspiration from the folk-tale Stone Soup, in which a community discovered that, by working together and sharing, they could make soup from a stone, experience the true abundance among them, and accomplish anything. In the same vein, if we come together to create Resurrection Village, we can make it happen!

We are in a housing crisis–a crisis of homelessness. Over 11,000 of us in the Denver metro area are houseless. Winter is here! Covering ourselves with anything other than our clothing in public space is illegal! We can build sturdy, attractive tiny homes quickly for very little cost. There is vacant land all over Denver. Let’s bring our voices, hands and hearts together to make this vision of a tiny homes village a reality now!

We welcome you to join with us–to add the unique and wonderful ingredients which only you possess!